WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #309, DECEMBER 31, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Mexico: Rebels Open Cultural Centers, Army Mobilizes 2. Mini-Rebellions in Mexican Villages and Mexico City 3. US Works to Prolong Haiti Occupation 4. US in Haiti: Pocahontas Pajamas and Privatization PR 5. Brazil: No Justice in Human Rights, Corruption Cases 6. Argentine Prisoners Take Hostages, Demand Amnesty 7. Argentine Judge Finds No Army Links to Anti-Semitic Bombing 8. Supreme Court Judge Murdered in Guatemala 9. Guatemala: Value-Added Tax Raised, PR Contract Renewed 10. Honduran Ex-Rebel Killed in Police Shootout 11. Peru: New Accusations Against US Activist 12. Peruvian Guerrilla Arrested in Bolivia 13. German Guerrillas Bomb Peruvian Consulate 14. Colombian Guerrillas Kidnap US Missionary in Ecuador? 15. Ecuadoran Prostitutes Threaten Hunger Strike 16. IMF Pushes New Harsh Measures on Venezuela 17. Salvadoran Court Rules on Layoff Law 18. Other News: INS, Panama, Nicaragua, Chile, Bolivia 19. Upcoming Events in the NYC Area and Beyond ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. Subscriptions to the electronic edition are delivered directly to your email address by our distributor, NY Transfer News. To subscribe, send your email address with a check or money order for US $25 payable to Blythe Systems. Mail to NY Transfer News Collective, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. For more information about electronic subscriptions, contact NY Transfer at nyt@blythe.org. For a subscription to the print edition (via first class mail), please send check or money order for $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network at 339 Lafayette St., New York, New York 10012. The email and print versions of the Weekly News Update are identical in content. Back issues and source materials are available on request. (Many of our source materials are accessed through NY Transfer; back issues are also available on NY Transfer's OnLine Library.) If you are accessing this Update for free on electronic newsgroups, we would appreciate any financial support you can contribute. We are a small, all-volunteer organization funded solely through subscriptions and contributions. Please also help spread the word about the Update. If you know someone who might be interested in subscribing, send their email address to nyt@blythe.org and request a free one-month trial subscription to the Weekly News Update on the Americas. (If they don't have email, send their postal address to us at nicanet@blythe.org and we'll send them a trial subscription to the print edition.) Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update on the Americas," and include our address so that people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to nicanet@blythe.org. 1. MEXICO: REBELS OPEN CULTURAL CENTERS, ARMY MOBILIZES In preparation for the second anniversary of the Jan. 1, 1994 uprising by southern Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), indigenous supporters of the rebels have built four EZLN cultural centers in the southeastern state of Chiapas. A Dec. 22 communique from the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee (CCRI)-EZLN General Command describes the new centers as "ships" for voyages the rebels want to take with "our betters" in "civil society" (civilian grassroots organizations). The centers have opened in the village of Oventic, San Andres Larrainzar (or Sakamch'en de los Pobres) municipality in the Tzotzil-speaking area north of San Cristobal de las Casas; in Morelia and La Garrucha, areas dominated by the Tzeltal group; and in La Realidad, in the southeastern Tojolabal region. "[M]asts are starting to rise" in other parts of the state, according to the communique, which says that a Zapatista center is being prepared in Mexico City and that "[i]n the north of Mexico, in Tijuana, another ship of this disconcerting fleet is already sailing." [EZLN Communique 12/22/95, in La Jornada (Mexico) 12/26/95, electronic edition] In a Sept. 29 speech the EZLN's "Sub-Commander Marcos" had called for supporters to build "Zapatista centers of resistance." The EZLN calls the centers "Aguascalientes," after the giant outdoor amphitheater the rebels built for their August 1994 meeting with 5,000 delegates from grassroots organizations. That "Aguacalientes"--named for the site of a 1914 convention called by Mexican revolutionary leaders Emiliano Zapata and Francisco Villa--was destroyed by the Mexican army in a February 1995 military offensive [see Updates #237 and 279]. The new center in San Andres, constructed of wood, plastic and some concrete, includes an outdoor assembly area, an auditorium, a clinic, a women's center, a library and 70 latrines. A daycare center is planned. Some 500 men, women and children worked for 50 days to build the center; the labor was divided up between different communities in the area north of San Cristobal. [LJ 12/24/95] Gen. Mario Renan Castillo, commander of the Mexican military's Seventh Region, has called the "Aguascalientes" "a military risk" which affects the army's security. The Mexican army responded by stationing soldiers within 200 meters of the Oventic "Aguascalientes," while the movement of federal troops, with tanks, armed transport vehicles, helicopters and airplanes, increased markedly in the days before Christmas. On Dec. 26 the National Immigration Service banned all foreigners with tourist visas from the Zapatista-dominated municipalities of Ocosingo, Altamirano and Las Margaritas. Around Oventic hundreds of indigenous people lined the road and shouted epithets-- "murderers," "devils," "buzzards"--at soldiers as they drove by, and a group of children tried to block the highway to stop the tanks. In a Dec. 23 communique the CCRI-EZLN insisted that the cultural centers and the anniversary commemorations represent no military threat. "We promise publicly not to carry out any military offensive," the rebels wrote. "We are preparing for peace, not for war." [LJ 12/24/95; EZLN communique 12/23/95, in LJ 12/26/95; Telemundo TV (US) 12/27/95; LJ 12/27/95 and 12/30/95, electronic editions] Amid mounting tensions, on Dec. 28 the mediation commission of the federal congress and the nongovernmental National Mediation Commission (CONAI) held hurried consultations with both sides, leading to unspecified concessions that would allow the EZLN anniversary celebrations to go ahead without incident. Mexican government officials admitted that "there were serious risks of intervention by the armed forces" on Dec. 28. EZLN commander "David" told reporters in San Andres on Dec. 29 that the threat of an attack hadn't ended and that people were being careful not to give the military any pretexts for actions. Peace negotiations are scheduled to resume on Jan. 10 after an EZLN-sponsored meeting of indigenous people from around the country Jan. 4-8. [LJ 12/30/95] The National Commission for Democracy in Mexico (NCDM) in the US is calling for mobilizations, press conferences and faxes to demand that the Mexican army withdraw its troops from indigenous villages and that the US formally denounce the Mexican government's actions. For more information, contact Adriana Manjarrez of the NCDM at 310-927-4707, fax 310-927-4648, email ar919@lafn.org. [For US connections with the Mexican military, see supplement, "NCDM Summary of Information," 12/20/95.] 2. MINI-REBELLIONS IN MEXICAN VILLAGES AND MEXICO CITY Tensions in Chiapas were heightened by militant protests in eight of the southern state's municipalities on Dec. 26. Members of campesino organizations and the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) were protesting the victory of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in these municipalities in the Oct. 12 local elections. In three towns, San Andres, Chenalho and La Libertad, hundreds of indigenous protesters seized the town halls to prevent the new PRI governments from taking office on Jan. 1. There was also a demonstration by about 2,000 indigenous people in Ocosingo, where the Oct. 12 vote was never held because of tensions between the PRI and EZLN supporters. Ocosingo groups finally agreed on a multi-party town council, dominated by grassroots groups but with representatives of the PRI and the PRD. Some 26,000 residents signed on to a document supporting the new council, but the state government has still not recognized it. [LJ 12/27/95] Meanwhile, federal troops increased their presence in the impoverished Costa Chica region of the southern state of Guerrero, apparently in response to rumors that Mixtec indigenous campesinos would resume their protests in the town of Tlacoachistlahuaca on Dec. 31. PRD supporters and members of the Guerrero 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Council from outlying communities occupied the town hall on May 23 and held it for seven months, until Dec. 16. They then they set the town hall on fire and drove back to their communities, where they installed their own "Popular Municipal Council in Rebellion." The Mixtecs were demanding the implementation of a development plan for the Costa Chica and the replacement of the municipal president. [LJ 12/17/95, 12/30/95] The historic village of Tepoztlan, near Mexico City in Morelos state, remains in rebellion against the state government, which has issued arrest warrants for homicide against 14 leaders of the Tepozteco Unity Community (CUT). The CUT was formed to protest the construction of a golf course; in September, it drove out the town council and elected a new mayor in a vote not recognized by the state [see Updates #293 and 297]. The situation exploded on Dec. 2 with the shooting of a local PRI member, Pedro Barragan Gutierrez, who died on Dec. 10. The PRI members say CUT shot Barragan "in the back, like cowards." In the CUT's account, the incident started when the local PRI leader, alternate deputy Rocio Ortiz Rojas, threatened unarmed CUT supporters with a pistol. CUT supporters disarmed Ortiz and led her away, according to the CUT. A group of heavily armed PRI members then began firing indiscriminately and accidentally shot one of their own group, Barragan, the back. On Dec. 3 the Mexico City daily La Jornada printed pictures of Ortiz Rojas holding a pistol; in one she seems to be aiming at someone, while in another she is yelling at a group of unarmed people. One CUT member, Fortino Mendoza Ortiz, was arrested on Dec. 26. [LJ 12/3/95, 12/26/95, 12/27/95] In Mexico City itself, members of the militant debtors organization El Barzon threatened to block traffic on Christmas Eve to protest the Dec. 22 arrest of two of the group's local leaders, Jose Enrique Puebla Ramos and Alfonso Ramirez Cuellar. The arrests were for "illegal deprivation of liberty" on Mar. 6, 1995, when they and 150 other Barzonistas blocked the entrance to the Automotriz AISA company. Leading intellectuals such as Carlos Monsivais and Elena Poniatowska immediately protested the charges, which would make many militant protests equivalent to a kidnapping. In the early morning of Dec. 29 the two El Barzon leaders were suddenly released on bail of about $210 each. [LJ 12/24/95, 12/29/95, electronic edition] 3. US WORKS TO PROLONG HAITI OCCUPATION On Dec. 26 US Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. John Shalikashvili and US national security Anthony Lake met separately with Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and president-elect Rene Preval, who is to take office on Feb. 7. Apparently the discussion was about extending the presence of US troops after February, the end of the United Nations mandate under which the US military and troops from other countries have occupied Haiti since September 1994. [New York Times 12/27/95 from AP] The occupation troops were supposed to be replaced by about 6,000 agents of the new, US-trained National Police. Republicans in the US Congress have now frozen $5 million in aid allocated to training the police force. Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-NY) claims the Republicans are "concerned" about "President Aristide's recent decision to integrate 1,400 ex-soldiers and other political loyalists into the Haitian National police." Gilman was referring to the admission of some members of an interim police force set up by the US at the beginning of the occupation. Of those integrated into the National Police, only about 100 were former soldiers; most of the rest were refugees that the US recruited in 1994 at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The liberal Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) expressed similar concerns in a Dec. 13 letter to Aristide. [NYT 12/24/95, some from Reuter] On Dec. 23 the Dominican government denied charges by Haitian ambassador Guy Alexander that rightwing Haitians living in the Dominican Republic were plotting to destabilize the Aristide government. Military sources said that Dominican intelligence was keeping a close watch on the rightists, mostly former members of the Haitian military. [La Jornada 12/24/95 from AP, EFE, AFP and Reuter] 4. US IN HAITI: POCAHONTAS PAJAMAS AND PRIVATIZATION PR More than half of the 50 maquiladoras (assembly plants) in US- occupied Haiti are paying less than the official $2.40 a day minimum wage, according to a recent report by the National Labor Committee (NLC), a New York-based union and human rights group. Major US corporations, including Walt Disney Co., Wal-Mart and JC Penney, are said to be contracting and subcontracting work from maquiladoras paying below the legal rate. About 10 Haitian plants produce for Disney, which contracts with LV Myles, a US firm with a plant in Haiti; LV Myles subcontracts much of the work to Haitian firms which are paying as little as $0.12 an hour. Disney's Pocahontas pajamas sell at Wal-Mart in the US for $11.97; according to the NLC, the Haitian workers get $0.07 for each set. President Aristide raised the minimum wage to its current level last May, but many firms use piece rates to circumvent the law. "We care very deeply about the conditions in which our products are made," a Disney spokesperson told Inter Press Service in response to the NLC report, "The US in Haiti: How to Get Rich on 11 Cents an Hour." The NLC says the US has given $596 million in assistance to Haitian businesses and US businesses in Haiti since the military occupation began. Report author Eric Verhoogen linked maquiladora exploitation to the whole range of US-sponsored economic policies in Haiti, including a controversial plan to privatize nine state- owned enterprises. "This [worker abuse] is what privatization means for Haitian workers," Verhoogen told IPS. "It's not a pretty sight." [IPS 12/26/95] Earlier this month the Haitian government and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) signed up the Montreal firm of Gervais Gagnon Covington Associates to start an $800,000 public relations campaign to sell the privatization plan to the Haitian public. Privatization opponents note that the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank affiliate in charge of privatization, is still refusing to release its documents on the plan [see Update #303]. [IPS 12/22/95] On Mar. 9, 1995, US under secretary of state Strobe Talbott told the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee: "I assure you, Mr. Chairman, even after our exit in February 1996, we will remain in charge by means of [US] AID and the private sector." [Progressive September 1995] 5. BRAZIL: NO JUSTICE IN HUMAN RIGHTS, CORRUPTION CASES Alexandre Roberto de Castro, a leader of the Landless Peasants Movement (MST) in Para state, Brazil, was shot to death on Dec. 21 outside his home, police announced on Dec. 23. De Castro's wife says the murder was "ordered by landowners" in the region; agents investigating his death admit that it is linked to land disputes in the south of Para state. [La Jornada 12/24/95 from AFP] Meanwhile, 19 agents of the Militarized Police in Parana state were sentenced on Dec. 28 to four and a half years in a semi-open prison for the February 1990 murder of 16-year old Vanderley Elias. The defense attorney for the police agents has appealed the sentence; in the meantime the accused remain working normally at the Campo Mourao military barracks in the interior of Parana state. Twenty agents were originally tried for the murder, but one, Aroldo Andreov, committed suicide this past September by shooting himself in the head at a nightclub. [Diario Las Americas 12/30/95 from AFP] And on Dec. 28, Paulo Cesar Farias was freed on probation after serving two years and one month of a seven year sentence for falsification of official documents [see Updates #201, 207]. Farias, the 1989 campaign manager for impeached president Fernando Collor de Mello, was granted a sentence reduction by the government as part of a traditional Christmas pardon. Having completed more than a third of his new sentence, Farias then became eligible for parole. Pilot Jorge Bandeira de Mello, the only other person still imprisoned from a massive corruption scandal under Collor's administration, was freed at the same time as Farias. [DLA 12/30/95 from EFE] 6. ARGENTINE PRISONERS TAKE HOSTAGES, DEMAND AMNESTY The 457 inmates at the Bahia Blanca prison in southern Buenos Aires province ended an uprising on Dec. 29 and released 10 hostage guards after authorities agreed to a list of prisoner demands. The uprising began the previous night after 14 prisoners attempted escape; eight were recaptured after reaching the street, and the remaining six began the protest. Demands included the transfer of nine inmates to federal prisons and the application of the "2 x 1 law," which counts each year of prison served by unsentenced detainees as two years served toward their future sentence. In addition, those imprisoned for common crimes demanded to be included in an amnesty for former coup participants and leftist rebels which President Carlos Saul Menem has admitted is under consideration [see Update #308]. [Diario Las Americas 12/30/95 from AFP] 7. ARGENTINE JUDGE FINDS NO ARMY LINKS TO ANTI-SEMITIC BOMBING On Dec. 24, Argentine federal judge Juan Jose Galeano ordered 12 people tried for illegal trafficking of weapons and explosives, but found no connection between the 12 accused and the July 18, 1994 car bomb attack on the Jewish Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) that killed 95 people and injured more than 200. Galeano originally ordered 16 people--including military officers, ex- military officers and civilians--arrested in connection with the case; four of those arrested were subsequently released [see Update #308]. Eight of the 12 now being charged will remain in prison, while four have been granted conditional freedom during the trial. Galeano also ordered a freeze on the assets of the accused, valued at some $12 million. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/25/95 from AP] 8. SUPREME COURT JUDGE MURDERED IN GUATEMALA Guatemalan supreme court judge Jose Vicente Gonzalez was shot to death on Dec. 29 in Guatemala City. Gonzalez worked as third judge of the First Circuit of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ); cases he was investigating included drug trafficking, contraband and fiscal fraud. Gonzalez also worked on a 1995 trial against former dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt, who was accused of falsifying signatures for the registration of his party, the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), for the Nov. 12 general elections. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/31/95 from EFE] In related news, Marlon and Mario Rene Salazar Lopez have been sentenced to 12 years of prison and fined approximately $10,000 for the April 1994 murder of Constitutional Court President Epaminondas Gonzalez Dubon [see Update #218]. Attorney General Ramses Cuestas said he would appeal the sentence, which he believes should be more severe. Gonzalez Dubon's son said no due process rights were respected, no serious investigation was carried out, and if those convicted were indeed the murderers of his father, the sentence was "ridiculous." He said the case would be brought before the Inter-American Court of the Organization of American States (OAS). [Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA Guatemala Human Rights Update #24-26, 12/29/95] 9. GUATEMALA: VALUE-ADDED TAX RAISED, PR CONTRACT RENEWED On Dec. 28, Guatemala's constitutional court refused to suspend an increase in the value-added tax (IVA) from 7% to 10%, scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 1996. The tax is paid by consumers on all products, including basic foodstuffs and other necessities. The court claim was filed by lawyer Hugo Argueta Figueroa, general secretary of the Guatemalan Laborist Party; Argueta argued that the IVA increase would violate article 243 of the constitution, which establishes that "tax laws must be structured in accordance with the principle of capacity to pay." [El Diario-La Prensa 12/29/95 from AP] President Ramiro de Leon Carpio meanwhile admitted that he has renegotiated a contract with R. Thompson and Company, a Washington public relations firm, to improve Guatemala's image in the US. According to the contract, the Guatemalan government will pay $40,000 a month to the firm. [GHRC/USA Human Rights Update #24-26, 12/29/95] 10. HONDURAN EX-REBEL KILLED IN POLICE SHOOTOUT Hector Espinoza Rosales, a former member of the Honduran "Cinchoneros" guerrilla group, was killed in a shootout with police in Tegucigalpa on Dec. 25. According to police spokesperson Capt. Danilo Orellana, Espinoza was shot when a police patrol showed up in a billiard hall in a poor neighborhood to arrest seven members of a group of thieves and drug traffickers led by the former leftist guerrilla. One police officer and one other member of the alleged crime gang were killed; two people were arrested and another three escaped. Espinoza, as chief of operations for the Cinchoneros, was considered the intellectual author of the 1989 assassination of former armed forces chief Gen. Gustavo Alvarez. Alvarez, a hardline anti-communist military leader trained in military academies in Argentina and Chile, served as armed forces chief from Jan. 25., 1982 and Mar. 31, 1984, when he was overthrown in a barracks coup. [Diario Las Americas 12/30/95 from EFE] In other news, 27 inmates at Tela prison in Honduras managed to escape on Dec. 29 when a guard opened a gate to allow a visitor to enter. The guard was injured by a machete in the incident. Police and army units are searching for the fugitives. [DLA 12/30/95 from EFE] 11. PERU: NEW ACCUSATIONS AGAINST US ACTIVIST Police sources announced on Dec. 27 that US solidarity activist Lori Berenson--arrested on Nov. 30 in Peru and accused of helping the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) rebels [see Updates #306, 307]--may have hidden money obtained illegally by the MRTA. The police based their presumption on the discovery of at least two US bank accounts in Berenson's name which they claim contain more than $100,000. Documents showing the existence of the bank accounts were reportedly found in the apartment where Berenson was living in Lima before her arrest. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/28/95 from EFE] According to the office of US lawyer Ramsey Clark, Berenson was held essentially incommunicado by Peru's notorious National Directorate Against Terrorism (DINCOTE) and interrogated relentlessly for a week after her arrest. In a press release issued Dec. 27, Clark's office said Berenson had been denied the right to remain silent, the presumption of innocence and respect for her physical and mental health. An effort was made to force her to confess through physical exhaustion, false claims of evidence and accusations against her, and psychological violence. She was forced to sign a written declaration without the opportunity to understand its content or consult with a lawyer. The Peruvian government is now claiming that Berenson's Peruvian lawyer is a "terrorist." Neither Berenson nor her lawyer have been permitted to see her case file. According to Clark's office, the government's claims that Berenson falsified press credentials and rented a house allegedly occupied by terrorists have been proven false. Clark, who is acting as a legal adviser to Berenson's family, is urging "all Americans who care about peace, freedom and justice" to press demands for Berenson's immediate release by writing to the White House (fax 202-456-1414); Assistant Secretary of State Alexander Watson (fax 202-647-0791); and congressional representatives (switchboard phone 202-225-3121). [Press Release from the Office of Ramsey Clark 12/27/95] 12. PERUVIAN GUERRILLA ARRESTED IN BOLIVIA At a Dec. 29 press conference, Bolivian governance minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain announced the arrest of Peruvian national Carlos Martin Serna Ponce, who confessed under interrogation to being a member of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), a Peruvian leftist guerrilla group. Serna reportedly also confessed to having participated in the kidnapping of businessperson and former minister Samuel Doria Medina; Sanchez said the Bolivian intelligence services know the exact identities of the other kidnappers involved. [Two Bolivian rebel groups claimed responsibility for the Doria kidnapping in communiques-- see Update #305.] Doria, kidnapped on Nov. 1, was released unharmed on Dec. 17. Serna has been sought by Peru's anti- terrorist police DINCOTE; according to Sanchez, his arrest is an important step in unraveling the details of the MRTA's incursion into Bolivia, which had been confirmed several days earlier. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/31/95 from AFP] 13. GERMAN GUERRILLAS BOMB PERUVIAN CONSULATE The Anti-Imperialist Cell (AIZ), a German guerrilla organization, claimed responsibility on Dec. 27 for the Dec. 23 bombing of a Dusseldorf office building housing the Peruvian consulate. The blast shattered windows but caused no injuries. In a 23-page statement sent to news agencies, AIZ said it planted the bomb to draw attention to conditions in which Peruvians lived. It warned of more "fatal" attacks to come and expressed solidarity with the Maoist guerrilla organization Peruvian Communist Party (PCP, better known as Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path). The statement also criticized the German government for pursuing what it said were imperialist policies in Latin America and for promoting a "military-civilian dictatorship" in Peru. The statement, written in a mixture of German, English, and Spanish, was signed "Action Khaled Kelkal" after an Algerian shot dead by French police on suspicion of having carried out a bomb attack in Paris in September. German prosecutors said they could not say yet whether the letter was genuine, but they said it looked similar to previous statements sent in the name of AIZ. [Reuter 12/27/95] 14. COLOMBIAN GUERRILLAS KIDNAP US MISSIONARY IN ECUADOR? The Ecuadoran police announced on Dec. 26 that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's oldest guerrilla organization, were responsible for kidnapping US missionary Daniel Cox. Police commander Gen. Miguel Rosero said the kidnappers were part of a guerrilla front that operates on the Colombian border and inside Ecuador. Rosero said the FARC guerrillas are presumed to be involved in other kidnappings in Ecuador. Cox, a Baptist pastor who has lived in Ecuador for five years, was taken prisoner on Dec. 10 and held in a mountainous region about 50km northeast of Quito. His captors were asking $500,000 ransom. Three of his captors were killed when Cox was freed in a police operation; two others managed to escape. Initially the police had identified the kidnappers as Ecuadorans, but the police director announced later that they belonged to the FARC. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/27/95 from AFP] 15. ECUADORAN PROSTITUTES THREATEN HUNGER STRIKE Sex workers in Ecuador announced that they will launch a hunger strike if the police and the public health ministry continue to allow brothel owners to operate under inadequate conditions, the daily El Comercio reported on Dec. 27. Sara Pincay, president of the National Federation of Sexual Workers (FENATRASE), accused Quito police director Boanerges Villagomez of allowing unsafe conditions at houses of prostitution, many of which are located near churches and schools. FENATRASE is demanding that the owners respect working hours and stop hiring children and foreign women. According to Pincay, five people control some 80% of prostitution in Quito, applying their own laws and mistreating workers. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/28/95 from AFP] The minimum wage for public and private workers in Ecuador will be raised 21% as of Jan. 1, 1996, Labor Minister Alfredo Corral announced on Dec. 28. The minimum monthly salary and total compensation will go from about $127 to about $150. [ED-LP 12/29/95 from AFP] 16. IMF PUSHES NEW HARSH MEASURES ON VENEZUELA The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will condition some $7 billion in loans to Venezuela on a new 50% devaluation of the bolivar in relation to the dollar in 1996, according to a report published on Dec. 25. Caracas daily El Universal carried a report from the US financial institution CS First Boston, warning of the harsh economic adjustment policies that President Rafael Caldera will have to impose in 1996. The 8% fiscal deficit predicted for 1996 will have to be reduced by half via "draconian" measures such as increases in taxes and gasoline, and currency devaluations [see Update #306]. In the second week of December, Caldera announced the devaluation of the bolivar from 170 to the dollar to 290, but experts say this will not be sufficient. Compared with the structural adjustment policies implemented in 1989 by then-president Carlos Andres Perez--which sparked mass street protests in which hundreds were killed by government troops--"this time the IMF will demand bigger economic adjustments..." according to El Universal. Among conditions to be set by the IMF is an end to controls on interest rates, exchange rates and product prices. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/26/95 from Notimex] Inter Press Service reports that Venezuelan economic perspectives for 1996 are so dismal that a favorite New Year's greeting is to wish someone "a happy 1997." Liberal economist Gustavo Garcia has joked that in 1996 the calendar will have to be consulted daily "to see whose turn it is to be on strike." President Caldera has openly admitted that "suffering cannot be avoided in the economic measures," though he promised to see that "the worst suffering falls on those with the strongest backs." January is expected to bring 70% price increases in staple foods like flour, dairy products and meat; the prices of these products were previously controlled. [IPS 12/22/95] The total number of products with controlled prices will be reduced from 50 to between 12 and 14, according to Industry and Trade Minister Werner Corrales. [Diario Las Americas 12/23/95 from AFP] 17. SALVADORAN COURT RULES ON LAYOFF LAW In a surprise decision on Dec. 14, the Supreme Court of El Salvador overturned two articles of Decree 471, also known as the "Economic Compensation Law." The decree, passed by the legislative assembly in mid-October [see Update #298], requires some 15,000 public sector workers to leave their jobs "voluntarily" in exchange for severance pay. Labor leaders have charged that the law is a government ploy to weed out union activists who are protesting efforts by the ruling rightwing Republican National Alliance (ARENA) to push through an economic plan that involves the privatization of essential public services. The workers filed suit with the Supreme Court, arguing that the measure violates El Salvador's constitution, which explicitly guarantees the right to social and economic welfare and job security. The court found articles 4 and 5--which establish the mandatory nature of the layoffs--unconstitutional, but let the rest of the decree stand. The wording has left the decision open to interpretation: while public workers and opposition parties say the government can no longer force workers to resign, ARENA claims the ruling only means that all laid-off workers must receive the same severance compensation, whether they leave their jobs willingly or not. [Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) El Salvador Watch #45, January 1996] Meanwhile, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) announced on Dec. 28 that work permits for Salvadorans who are seeking political asylum in the US will be extended for another three months. Salvadorans can now continued working legally in the US until Apr. 30 while they await the results of their asylum application; all application paperwork must be submitted by Jan. 31. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/29/95 from EFE] 18. IN OTHER NEWS... On Dec. 22, four employees at the New York City offices of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) were arrested and charged with accepting bribes; all four pleaded not guilty and were freed on $25,000 bail the same day. The arrests were the culmination of a two-year Justice Department investigation, which discovered the four women selling work permits to undocumented immigrants for up to $2,000 apiece, and charging $500 to accelerate the process for those legally entitled to the permits. "It's an open secret what happens at the INS," said a Justice Department agent. "All the employees know how to do this type of business, which makes it impossible to prevent this kind of fraud." [El Diario-La Prensa 12/24/95]... On Nov. 16, Panama's legislature approved a law to crack down on money laundering in the country's international banking industry. The law defines money laundering as a crime, stipulates fines of up to $1 million for bankers and imposes limits on the country's previously untouchable bank secrecy laws. It also imposes sanctions against financial and insurance companies, firms operating in the Colon free zone, and even state-run casinos and other gambling activities. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), about $1 billion a year is laundered in the 120 international and local banks operating in Panama, and in the Colon free zone, where a $10 billion trade in imports and re- exports is carried out annually. [Inter Press Service 11/17/95]... Unknown assailants attacked a Catholic church in Masaya, Nicaragua, with explosives on Dec. 25, causing no victims or serious damages. Area residents assumed the noise was part of Christmas fireworks celebrations. This was the sixth dynamite attack on churches in the city of Masaya and the 16th in Nicaragua against religious institutions since April, when it was announced that the Pope will visit Nicaragua in February 1996. The Catholic church in Nicaragua has warned that the papal visit will occur with or without bombs. US agents are assisting in investigation of the bombings at the request of the Nicaraguan government; results of the investigation have not been revealed. [ED-LP 12/26/95 from AFP]... In Chile, retired Carabineros police officer Hector Diaz Anderson was transferred to Punta Peuco prison on Dec. 12 to begin serving a three-year sentence for the 1985 death under torture of Socialist leader Carlos Godoy. Judge Andres Irazaval of the Sixth Military Tribunal had issued an arrest warrant for Diaz on Dec. 5 after upholding his sentence. Diaz, an agent of the Carabineros secret service Dicomcar, headed Dicomcar's arrest operation of Godoy and 12 other members of the Socialist Party in February 1985, in the coastal town of Quintero, where the Socialists were organizing a school for party members. Godoy died under torture at the local police station, while his companions spent two years in a Valparaiso prison before being absolved of all charges. [CHIP News 12/13/95]... The Health Workers Union Confederation in Bolivia has declared an open-ended general strike to begin Jan. 2 in rejection of the decentralization of state health services. The measure was adopted at a national assembly of union leaders who "fear that the decentralization will mean the dismissal of thousands of health workers," explained union leaders Pedro Medina and Israel Veizaga. [Diario Las Americas 12/30/95 from AFP] 19. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NYC AREA AND BEYOND For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network. IFCO/Pastors for Peace Work Brigades to Cuba, 3/9-3/16 or 3/9-3/23; 4/27-5/5. Help build homes in working-class Havana barrio. $850 for 1 wk; $1,150 for 2 wks. Also, Peace research trips. 212-926-5757, fax 212-926-5842, email ifco@igc.apc.org Work in a rural cooperative in Nicaragua, starting 8/22. 11-month volunteer program, w/language & country training. Inst for Int'l Cooperation & Development, 413-458-9828. THROUGH 1/12 FRI - "Art for the Zapatista Mvt," w/art, videos, music, poetry. ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St. 212-254-3697. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 For more info, e-mail accounts@blythe.org, or gopher://ursula.blythe.org/11/NY-Transfer-News/ =================================================================